Monday, July 15, 2013

Ben Chapman Back On The Pervert Propaganda Beat

Ben "Where Are The Perv Teachers" Chapman has another ridiculous piece of propaganda in the Daily News today "reporting" the following:

A parents advocacy group will spend $100,000 to rip mayoral candidates William Thompson, Anthony Weiner, Bill de Blasio and John Liu as soft on perv teachers.
The Parents Transparency Project, headed by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, will begin airing an ad Monday to paint the foursome as too afraid of the teachers union to protect city students from sexual predators.

Four other candidates — Christine Quinn, Sal Albanese, Joe Lhota and George McDonald — signed the group’s pledge to not sign a new contract with teachers until the process for removing teachers accused of inappropriate behavior is overhauled. The union, which endorsed Thompson, has opposed legislation to streamline the process.

Chapman fails to report that the "perv" teachers still working in the NYC school system have never had criminal charges or allegations substantiated against them, which is why they're still working in the NYC school system.

As NYC Educator wrote in his post on the Chapman "perv" piece:

The charges are simply untrue. Legal expert Brown contends that most teachers charged are still working. That's a fact because they were not convicted. I realize that legal expert Brown and the Daily News cannot distinguish between charges and actual guilt, but it's kind of irresponsible they mislead their readers like this. For example, not a single person relying on the Daily News for information will realize that legal expert Campbell Brown wants Walcott to fire teachers who were not convicted.

We have now gotten to a world where unsubstantiated allegations are enough to get you fired and declared guilty in the newspapers - if you're a teacher.   

This is amazing when you think about it, because we still pay lip service in this country to being a "nation of laws" where you are presumed innocent unless guilt of a crime is established and proven.

If guilt is not established and proven, they don't throw you in jail or get you fired from your job or declare you a "perv" when writing about you in the newspaper.

Yeah, that last part is actually part of the presumption of innocence idea, although it's being broken here by the Daily News and Ben Chapman.

To wit:

Guaranteeing the presumption of innocence extends beyond the judicial system. For instance, in many countries journalistic codes of ethics state that journalists should refrain from referring to suspects as though their guilt is certain. For example, they use "suspect" or "defendant" when referring to the suspect, and use "alleged" when referring to the criminal activity that the suspect is accused of.


And if allegations are not substantiated and guilt is not established, the journalistic code of ethics extends to not writing about these teachers as if the allegations were substantiated or guilt was established, when neither is the case.

I wouldn't expect Campbell Brown, the right wing corporatist media shill with the union-busting agenda who is married to neo-con/Students First board member Dan Senor, to explain the disconnect between her charge that the NYCDOE cannot fire "perv" teachers from the reality that these teachers are not guilty of any crime, but it would be nice if the "journalist" from the Daily News would.

But it seems that although Ben Chapman calls himself a "journalist," he's actually a paid propagandist for the powers that be looking to smear teachers as "perverts," turn the public against them and strip them of their constitutional rights.

If Chapman were writing as a journalist he'd report the facts as they are instead of the facts the way Campbell Brown and Chapman's Daily News Boss, Mort Zuckerman, want them reported.

But I guess it's asking too much for Ben Chapman to report facts and truth rather than the propaganda his wealthy oligarch boss wants him to spew.

Alas, such is the state of "journalism" in America these days.

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